I went to bed at 2 a.m. refreshing Yahoo! for updates on Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry. Unfortunately, I awoke this morning to find the news I'd been dreading: Henry had died as a result of injuries sustained after falling out of the back of a truck.

Longtime readers of this blog know we tend to root for people like Henry around here. Did he have problems? Absolutely. But he also was struggling to overcome them, desperately seeking not only redemption, but a better life for himself. His struggles, and the struggles of athletes who publicly deal with similar poor decisions, are much more life-affirming than the heavily-marketed, "everything's perfect" pitchmen we're used to seeing. Henry had real people demons, and had to deal with them, as real people do, but had the unfortunate disadvantage of being in the public eye while he tried to figure things out.

By all accounts, Henry was succeeding in turning his life around. It doesn't make his death any less tragic, but it does perhaps make it more sobering.

Plenty of thoughts on Henry are out there on the Web today. Here are some of the better pieces I've read:

Black Sports Online: "Some things in life are unavoidable. Sometimes you are just at the
wrong place at the wrong time or the writing has been in the wall and
you are just waiting for the inevitable. Then there are situations that are totally avoidable if you just took that extra second to think before you reacted. While most things regardless of the situation you can live and learn from, but the one you can’t is death. That is why I am so sad for Chris Henry and all his loved ones this morning."

The Starting Five: "Respect must go out to Mike Brown for deciding to bring Chris back
after the move was met with subtle and not so subtle resistance. Life
is so unpredictable."

Deadspin: "Henry had once been a symbol for all that was wrong with that
franchise, but they gave him all the second chances in the world and
they had made their comebacks together."

FreeDarko: "Chris Henry passed away this morning. From his lengthy rap sheet,
litany of suspensions, and career full of false starts, you might think
Henry was just another defiant thug. But Henry was something far
darker: A young man in grips of self-destruction from the day he
entered the league; an immense talent who could often convince you he
was the best receiver on the Bengals; and, by all accounts, a nice guy
that the team simply refused to give up on."

Shutdown Corner: "Redemption stories are the best kind. If someone's failed, lost their way or made more mistakes than we deem acceptable, I always find myself on that guy's side.
I'm not supporting what they've done or making excuses for them, but hoping that they'll find a way to be better. Hoping that they'll learn from their mistakes and become the person they can be. In one way or another, I think we're all striving for that.
That's what Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was supposedly doing ..."